Schools where pupils call teachers by their first names.

[LynetteScavo]

I've heard it's usual in Finland...does it happen in any other countries?

Did you go/do your DC to a school where children call teachers by their first name?

What do you think about it?

Dc went to primary school with first names, no uniform. Fab school.

I was shocked to discover it's not the norm. Surely it's weird in C21?

When I was a child (not that long ago) all adults were known by their full name and family friends of my parents where addressed at Auntie..... or Uncle..... Even though they were no relation. It showed respect for adults because i was a child.

Fair enough, soapbox - I just can imagine that being in a school where it is the norm would be totally different - ime, something as simple as a first vs second name wouldn't make the difference between respect and non respect.

Which isn't to say that there isn't a lot in a name (to paraphrase ) My tutor in sociolinguistics at uni told us in our first tutorial to call him by his first name. At the end of the term, he asked pointed out we'd all spent a year avoiding calling him anything

Interesting to see that it no longer seems to cause discipline issues - my bro and sis went to a state school where some of the teachers liked to be called by their first names and it certainly did create discipline issues - but maybe that was because those particular teachers were more young and "hip" and less into discipline anyway. Some of the things my sis told me she had said to one of these teachers would have earnt me a suspension from my stricter school!

I don't much like it - I would prefer to call teachers by their surnames, and I prefer it when health professionals use my surname rather than my first name - too familiar, breeds contempt even still imo.

I spent 6+ years teaching at a school where all staff went by their first names and loved it.

The first time I came across it was before I went into teaching but as part of my previous job was in various London primary schools and the Head of a community primary in Hackney explained why he'd gone down that route; "I don't want the children to call me Sir, I've not been knighted and I'm not something beyond that which they are all perfectly capable of achieving - I want them to see me as a person which is how I see them." It was a school whose population was largely drawn from the local Albanian and Turkish communities and this Head felt that introducing himself with his first name made it easier for the parents (usually the mothers) to let him know how they wished him to address them.

I'm now at a school where, until recently, there had been a hotchpotch of first names and titles with surnames. In the main it seemed as though teachers had titles and surnames but all other staff were known by first names - that does seem wrong to me. The incoming Head asked the staff to decide upon a single system and the staff chose titles and surnames. Personally I wish they hadn't; I detest being called 'Miss' instead of Mrs SE13 and find that far more disrespectful than being called by my first name! I go to the trouble of learning the children's names and don't call them 'boy' or 'girl' so see no reason for them to call me 'Miss'.

I've not quite worked out the thing with parents though; I always introduce myself as "X, but Mrs SE13 to the children" which seems rather long-winded.

I used to work at a special school where all the TAs were by first name & teachers were miss/mrs/mr and when a couple of TAs became teachers it all got muddled and as new staff came in it drifted over to first names. They do have a couple of mrs/mr but all but one will accept first names too.

I hated it when I changed jobs and was Mrs

I taught in Finland for a few years and we had a bilingual school so I just taught like I would have done in the UK, just happened to be living in Finland.
It was quite wierd in some ways at our school as the English side of the school called us as Miss/Mr/Mrs.... but on the Finnish side they used first names. I remember once sitting having lunch with my class and the headteacher came and sat next to me and someone was talking to me saying 'Miss.... then turned to the head and called her with her first name. After a while I got used to it and I could see if did not make any difference to how they treated their teacher at all.

Another Spanish...
I was shocked to find out that 4-5 yo had to refer to Ms. 'X' and have no clue about the first name of their teacher. I cannot see the relationship with respect/discipline, but a cultural trait that establishes a distance between students, parents and the teacher. This is not a bad thing per se IMO.
It can facilitate communication in case of conflict for instance. In consultations with teacher I find strange that we speak with Ms. 'x' while she can certainly not retain all the titles and surnames of the other speakers in the conversation (the parents). So we refer to her as Ms. while she avoids any reference to our names/titles...

Italy here, at nursery and primary they call the teachers Maestra + first name, but that changes at middle school and above and teachers are referred to as "Prof + surname" or even more oddly (IMO) "La + surname".

The teachers also call the kids by their surname, which I think is horrid. I work as a language teacher and I always call the kids by their name....If I say to the regular class teacher "oh, I wanted to talk to you about Antonio" she'll say "who?"

I went to a trendy school in the 70s but it had just amalgamated with a non-trendy one (bit like Waterloo Road) and half the teachers had long hair and velvet trousers and we called them "Alan" whilst the other half wore suits and had briefcases and insisted on "Mr Surname".

alphabettispagetti - how can you assume that there is a lack of respect unless you have experienced a school like that?

we had no uniform and none of this sir/miss nonsense. my peers nad i had a great deal of respect for our teachers and remain in contact with some - as equal adults with a shared history.

titles create a strong 'them and us' dynamic which i think stops children seeing teachers as individuals. respect is a complicated concept which can't be just awarded with a title.

also fwiw my friends and i were/actually i still am often shocked by how rude the general public were outside the school.

DS's school has no uniform, and all teachers (inc the Head) ae addressed by their first name. The school has a lovely atmosphere, and behaviour is exceptionally good (this is an inner city state school in Lndon with a very mixed demographic -the sort of school catchment which is often spoken of with trepidation on MN ). There is a strong sense of family, with children in older years having 'playground buddies' supporting younger children, and 'buddy reading', which makes older children v proud of thier proteges, and gives everyone a sense of continuum of shared resposnibility. afaics discipline is actually pretty tight and strict if people do not respect the respnsibilities within that. I have encountered no tales of lack of respect or slack discipline.

sungirltan, was the school you went to St Christophers? I went there many moons ago. Had great fun and some wild memories

I went to a fee paying grind college in Ireland where this was the norm. We had no uniform and it was a very differant environment to the all gilrs catholic school i'd come from.

Suited me down to the ground though and i loved it, the teachers were far more approachable and there wasn't that fear and awe mentality

drivemecrazy - guilty as charged :-)

Deepdarkwood - they wouldn't have crossed as am 35.

Weirdly I was going to go to the posh girls school in Warwick but decided against as Trinity is Catholic.

So babyicebean, did you enjoy Trinity? I feel like I'm taking a gamble sending DS there. No one DS knows goes there, and he's the only person from his school starting in Sept', as we live in the next town. I suspect lots of my friends think I'm a bit mad to send him there, but I was blown away when we looked around.

I actually expected a lot more people to be disaproving of teachers being called by their first names. I pleased so many people are positive about it.

Ds attends the British school in Brussels and it is all first names there, including the Principal. There doesn't seem to be issues with it, although coming from teaching and being used to being referred to as Miss, I still find it strange.

I loved it.

At my (inner London, council estate) primary school there were no uniforms and we called the teachers by their first names - it seemed normal to me! I do feel like I've had quite a different primary school experience to most people - it was a big school - 300 odd pupils, totally non-religious so no hymns or nativity plays.

My dd attends a bilingual school. She calls her French teachers by their surname or says 'teacher' but her English teachers and TAs she addresses by their first names. I have no idea of the theory behind this but noticed it has no influence on her relationship with any of them. She loves and admires them all equally as dearly!

Lynette, I've only heard good things about the school. We're some distance away and my neighbour chose it over several good local schools and remains pleased with her decision. Her children are friendly, articulate and very pleasant.

My dc's school used to but the new head re-introduced Mr/Mrs/Miss. Pesonally I prefer the more formal (old-fashioned I guess. Don't really know what impact it had on the school as his arrival 4 years ago has had a great improvement to the school generally.
However we do still know the teacher's first names unlike when I was in primary in the 1970s - I spent 7 years wondering what the H was for in my headmaster's name. Only when I left the school would my mum let me know his name, which was Herbert! It was worth the wait somehow and I would have been disappointed to find his name was something normal! (Sorry for the digression.)

Lynette I know a family that sends their 14 yo to that school, she is delightful and seems very happy there
have also talked with others who have nothing but praise for it